Stools have been known for many years and are commonly used for seating purposes both indoors and outdoors. They can be made of a variety of materials, including wood, metal and rigid plastic. One common form of stool is made with a round or square top forming a sitting surface and a plurality of legs extending downwardly from the top and attached thereto. Often there are four legs which can be connected to one another by means of horizontal struts or bars. The top seat can be made of solid wood or metal forming a hard seat or the top can be covered with some form of padding. In general, such stools are only able to support one person with the size of the person that can be supported depending upon the size and strength of the stool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,623 issued Jul. 25, 1995 describes a stool which includes an articulated seat whose front segment is hinged to a rear segment. The rear segment is mounted on a depressible spring mechanism supported on a stand that normally raises the seat to a perching mode level. This stool, which is intended for one person only, is provided with a vertical stand that is supported on a multi-legged base that rests on the floor. The front segment of the seat is operatively linked to the rear segment by means including a lever arm pivotally connected at its upper and to the underside of the front segment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,067 issued Jul. 16, 1996, describes a chair with a seat back, a floor engaging support, and a seat mounted on the support. The seat includes a posterior and leg supporting seating portion that can be moved with respect to the support between a horizontal plane and a forward downward inclined plane in which a user assumes a kneeling-like sitting posture. This chair also has a crotch supporting tongue for supporting the user when he or she is in the kneeling-like sitting posture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,797, which issued on Jul. 27, 1999, describes a so-called portable work stool that includes a seat which is secured to and carried by the user adjacent the user's posterior when standing and moving about. The stool has a single, variable length support leg attached to the seat. The exemplary version is a narrow seat similar to a narrow bicycle seat. Thus, the seat has a relatively narrow front portion and a wider, rounded rear portion to which straps are attached. This work stool can also be provided with a pair of side stabilizers to prevent the stool from tipping too far over sideways.
Although it is common to provide a chair or a stool in a washroom facility to allow a user to sit down, the chair or stool is suitable generally for only one person and it may only be suitable for an adult or only for a child, depending upon the size of the particular chair or stool.
Often it is necessary for a parent to sit a small child in front of a washroom mirror or to at least have the child sit down so that the parent can brush the child's teeth, brush the child's hair, or wash the child's face. Sometimes parents have seated their children on a bathroom counter which can be relatively high, necessitating the parent to lift the child up and sit him or her on the counter. This can present a danger to the child since the counter is relatively high and there is a risk that the child could fall from the counter, particularly if the parent is distracted or is required to leave the child for a brief period of time in order to obtain a brush, wash cloth or some other item. There thus is a need for an improved seating arrangement which not only allows the child to be seated while being attended to by a parent, but also allows the parent to sit down close to the child.